Pilgrims' progress

A streetcar ride away from the modern skyline of Rotterdam is the historic borough of Delfshaven.

It's a time warp: a traditional Dutch cityscape that missed out on the World War II bombs that smashed central Rotterdam.

Delfshaven isn't just a glimpse at a prewar Rotterdam. It's a magnet for a distinct brand of American history buff – fans devoted to the story of the Mayflower, the Pilgrims, Plymouth Colony and America's first Thanksgiving.

This is the Dutch port where English religious separatists embarked for the New World in 1620.

Along a canal next to a bridge at Aelbrechtskolk 20 is the Pilgrim Fathers Church – known locally as the Oude Kerk or Pelgrimvaderskerk. It's where, in July 1620, dozens of English exiles spent the night praying before setting sail.

“This is the starting point of the ‘Speedwell,' on which the Pilgrim Fathers sailed to England on August 1st 1620,” says a plaque on the church.

Inside the church, an exhibit tells how the church was consecrated in 1417 as the Sint Antoniuskapel. It was Catholic then. In 1574, a time of religious turmoil, the church turned Protestant. In 1620, English Protestants arrived at Delfshaven from nearby Leiden.

Now they would sail the Speedwell back to England, boarding a larger ship, the Mayflower, to embark from Plymouth, for North America. They had aimed for the Hudson River in what is present day New York, but storms and damage to the ship forced them to land farther north, at present day Cape Cod. There they signed the Mayflower Compact to govern themselves in a land outside their colony charter. After signing a treaty with the Pokanoket nation, they would celebrate with natives a 1621 harvest feast that has evolved into the American tradition of Thanksgiving.

The Pelgrimvaderskerk proudly recalls its Pilgrim role: “They slept little that night, spending most of their time praying and singing,” the exhibit says. “The wind was favourable on the day of departure and Pilgrims boarded the ship. Their pastor, the Reverend John Robinson, who had decided not to accompany them on the voyage itself, led them in prayer, reading from the book of Ezra. The quayside was the scene of a heartrending parting from their fellow Calvinists who were to stay behind.”

The exhibit traces Delfshaven's birth to the 1400s, “when a canal was dug around the (inland) city of Delft to allow shipping access to and from the river Maas. Delft took this action in order to improve its competitive position in relation to Rotterdam.” You learn that the church became a landmark of a prosperous town, its distinctive facade dating to 1761. And since 1886, Delfshaven has been part of Rotterdam.

Next door to the church, you can polish off your visit with lunch and a pint at a brewery, the Pelgrim. You can imbibe several varieties of Pelgrim Bier right where it is brewed.

Outside, just down the canal, is the river that carried the Speedwell from Delfshaven to the North Sea. Today that river carries cargo ships and cruise ships from Rotterdam to distant lands and channel ferries to Britain. Nearing the coast, these vessels pass Hoek van Holland – the Hook of Holland.

At Hoek van Holland, you can stroll a wide sandy beach and view a monument to another example of Dutch tolerance and charity. Just as modern-day pilgrims make journeys to historic sites like Leiden and Delfshaven to ponder America's Mayflower roots, the “Kindertransport” monument depicts 20th-century pilgrims – children, luggage in hand – fleeing Nazi terror for sanctuary in England.

“Between 1938 and the outbreak of the War,” it says, “10,000 mainly Jewish children from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia were permitted to enter England without their parents and escape Nazi persecution.”

The sculpture is dedicated to “the people of Holland and the United Kingdom who saved these children from certain death.”

At the Hoek van Holland, I boarded the “superferry” Stena Britannica for a smooth overnight crossing to Harwich, Britain.

In my stateroom after dinner, I imagined this a rather comfier version of the two-day voyage that the Speedwell's passengers must have endured to Southampton, followed by two aborted attempts to leave for America on the Mayflower and on a leaky Speedwell.

Most of the Pilgrims packed onto the Mayflower, which set out alone for the New World.

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